A God Among Men
by Concentrated Awesomeness
Summary: Naruto manages to defeat Madara at the end of the 4th great shinobi war, but something unexpected happens and Naruto is thrown back in time to the day he graduates the academy. Follow along as Naruto rises to power and becomes a God among his fellow man. Will his power be enough to prevent the same future from recurring? GODlike naruto with rinnegan/sharingan
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone. For any readers of my other stories, Im sorry for abandoning them. Life happened and i lost my will to write. Id love it if someone were to takeover and finish either or both of them. I'm publishing this story because I felt like writing it. I don't know when or if I'll ever update it again. It will go strictly at my leisure when and if i feel like writing again, so if that's a problem then i suggest you don't start reading this one. If you like it review it. If you don't like it then that's okay too, i do this for me, not you.**

Two figures stood several feet apart, each with a pair of purple rippled eyes gazing at the other. The first figure was a taller man with black spiky hair reaching his waist, one lock of hair almost covering his right eye. He was clad in samurai style red metal armor with a large fan on his back. The second figure was average height with messy blond spikes almost reaching his shoulders, with his bangs framing his face. He had three whisker marks on each cheek. He wore a white cloak with black flames at the bottom and at the end of the sleeves.

The area around the two figures was completely destroyed; it was obvious that quite the battle had taken place here. Not too far away from the man in the white cloak laid another figure. This man had jet black, duck shaped hair, he wore a light purple tshirt with dark purple pants and a light purple rope belt tied in a bow on his back. Upon closer inspection one would see that this man was missing his left arm just above the elbow and he had a rather large hole in the left side of his chest.

"Sasuke…" The cloaked man almost whispered as he gazed upon his longtime friend's injuries. From the looks of it Sasuke had only a few minutes left if he was lucky.

"Naruto… I'm sorry. I wasn't able to help you out in the end. I guess we didn't need to fight to see who the strongest was after all." Sasuke replied weakly before he coughed up some blood. "Now we know that you were the best choice after all… Just promise me that you will kill Madara and take care of Sakura like a good Hokage should." He finished before he went into a coughing fit, spitting up a large amount of blood and closing his eyes for the last time. Naruto let his lips twist into a small smile as tears began to drip down his face. "I promise Sasuke, and I never go back on my word." He almost whispered as he turned back to Madara.

As he turned he was covered in a coat of yellow chakra, dancing wildly around his form. The ripples in his eyes turned blood red as 3 tomoe appeared on each ring. The inner circle turned into a catlike slit with a bar through it. The bangs that framed his face now stood straight up, looking almost like horns coming from his forehead. "Madara Uchiha, this has gone on long enough! You will die here today!" Naruto yelled as he disappeared from his place, the ground exploding beneath him from the power he extruded.

Madara was barely able to get his fan off his back and around to block a punch from Naruto. The force of the punch blasted both Madara and Naruto backwards several feet. Both men began blurring through hand seals, Naruto stopping on Dragon, Madara stopping on Tiger.

"Ration: Grand Lightning Devastation!"/"Katon: Great Fire Annihilation!" Naruto and Madara yelled simultaneously. Naruto expelled a large wall of lightning from his hands as Madara sent a wave of fire from his mouth. The two techniques clashed in the middle and briefly battled for dominance before both exploded and canceled out. Before the smoke could even settle good Madara had to roll sideways to avoid a screeching ball of energy with 4 blades wrapping around it. The attack flew by Madara and up into the air where it dispelled. Madara had little time to ponder on it before a foot smashed into his face so hard it should've shattered his neck. He was launched several feet backwards before crashing through a large tree and rolling onto the ground. He slowly got back up to his knee just in time for Naruto to appear in front of him once more.

Naruto grabbed Madara by his hair and pulled towards him as he shot his knee forward, meeting Madara's face with a satisfying 'crack', sending him flying into the sky. Naruto quickly jumped to follow him until he peaked and began to fall again before Naruto's right arm was covered in lightning. Naruto swung his fist towards Madara's face once again and grinned when it made contact. "Raiton: Fist of the Thunder God!" Naruto yelled as Madara was enveloped in a lightning bolt and sent racing into the ground.

Madara crashed into the ground creating a large crater around his battered body. Naruto gently floated back to the ground with his arms crossed. He grinned as he looked at Madara's beaten form before he extended his right arm. "RasenBōkyaku! **(spiraling oblivion)** " Naruto said as a black ball appeared in his hand before shrinking down to the size of a gum ball. The ball levitated up out of his palm and sped towards Madara.

Madara looked up at the ball of certain death closing in on him at an alarming rate. " _If that hits me I'm done for, but I can't dodge it in my current state. I guess I only have one option…"_ He thought as his rinnegan eyes suddenly pulsed with chakra, glowing a bright purple. "Jikū kuchiku-kan." **(Space-time destroyer)** Madara said. A small ripple appeared in the air in front of Naruto's attack before the two collided and began fighting for dominance. It appeared to be a stalemate until Naruto's rasenbokyaku expanded several times its original size and exploded back towards Naruto, enveloping him in a white light and levitating him several feet into the air. From his position he could see his attack power through Madara's defense and hit him right in the chest before imploding, pulling Madara and several feet of the earth into the miniature black hole never to be seen again.

Naruto let a small smile show on his face. "It's finally over." Was his last thought before the white light became even brighter and then everything went dark.


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto's eyes suddenly popped open and he began to take in his surroundings. The last thing he remembered was Madara dying and then everything went dark. He quickly noticed that he wasn't on the war-torn battlefield any more, rather it looked like he was at Konoha's shinobi academy. After the Initial shock wore off he noticed that he was sitting on the swing that he became used to sitting on every day after the academy.

It also didn't take him long to realize that his body felt rather weak, and that his cloak was also missing. He didn't get to ponder on it long before he heard people talking and looked across the field to see several kids proudly showing their parents their newly acquired hitai-ates. " _Hmm, it looks like the class just graduated. Something weird is going on here."_ Naruto thought as he looked at the families' interactions. Things only got weirder when he noticed Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji walk out of the class sporting free hitai-ates.

Again Naruto didn't have long to ponder on this situation before he heard someone sneaking up behind him. He turned quickly to see his grey haired academy instructor, Mizuki. _"Also weird. I'm sure he is dead. Have I travelled back in time?"_ Naruto thought to himself before hearing Mizuki speak. "Hey there Naruto, sorry that you didn't graduate today. I can tell that you have potential, so I want to offer you a second chance.

 _"This I definitely remember."_ Naruto thought to himself remembering his "Second chance" where he was tricked into stealing the scroll of seals. He figured that he'd play along with Mizuki for right now and then figure his situation out later. "A second chance? Really Mizuki-sensei? What do I have to do?" Naruto said with his childish voice.

"Simple, all you have to do is sneak into the Hokage tower and steal a fake scroll, then bring it to me in the woods outside the village at midnight. If you manage to get the scroll without getting caught then you pass and you are officially a genin." Mizuki said with a smile on his face. _"Almost too easy."_ He thought with a smile.

Naruto of course knew what Mizuki's real intentions were and could barely restrain his anger. After all, the first time this happened Mizuki had tried to kill him and Iruka, his favorite instructor. Naruto simply put up a fake smile and nodded excitedly. "That's too easy! I'll be a genin in no time at all!" Naruto yelled as he pumped his fist in the air.

"Shhh, don't tell anyone or you'll blow your cover and fail the mission." Mizuki said quietly. "Remember, meet me outside the village at midnight, and don't be late." He finished before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto sat there on the swing for a few more minutes pondering on all the events that happened recently. One minute he was killing Madara Uchiha and ending the Fourth Great Shinobi War, the next he had just failed his graduation exam. He wasn't sure exactly what happened, but this was definitely real, he couldn't detect a genjutsu. He had somehow travelled back in time nearly 5 years. He quickly decided that he had to let the Hokage know what was happening and took off toward the tower to speak with Hiruzen.

He quickly arrived at the tower and ran up the stairs until he was at the door to the Hokage's office. He knocked a couple of times before he heard Hiruzen's voice "You may enter."

Naruto opened the door and walked in towards Hiruzen's desk. "Hey Jiji." Naruto said with a smile and a wave.

"Naruto, Hello, what brings you here?" Hiruzen replied as he looked up from his paperwork and pulled out his pipe.

"I have a few things we need to talk about, in private." Naruto said looking toward the corner of the room where an ANBU was hidden.

Hiruzen filled his pipe and lit it, drawing in a breath and filling his lungs full of smoke. "Give us a minute would you?" He said to seemingly no one before 4 figures appeared from nowhere, nodded and left the room. "So Naruto, what is it that you wanted to talk about?"

Naruto took a deep breath as he pondered on how to explain this to Hiruzen in a believable manner. "Well… I know you're not gonna believe this, but I somehow managed to travel back in time." Naruto said with a chuckle causing Hiruzen to look at him sternly.

"Naruto this is too far for a prank. You made me send my ANBU out of the room all for a joke?" Hiruzen said in a stern voice.

Naruto didn't falter under the aged Hokage's gaze, knowing he would react something like that. "Jiji I'm telling the truth. I just woke up in this time maybe an hour ago. I was fighting Madara Uchiha in the Fourth Shinobi War nearly five years from now. I managed to kill him and then everything went black and I woke up here." Naruto said in a convincing tone. "If you want proof I know that the Kyuubi is sealed inside of me and that my father Minato Namikaze is the one who sealed it into me."

At this point Hiruzen's eyes widened and his pipe fell to the desk below, scattering ashes everywhere. The boy had to be telling the truth, otherwise he wouldn't know about his heritage. "Naruto… How… How did this happen?"

"I'm not sure Jiji. Like I said I Killed Madara Uchiha and then the next moment I was here again. The future is not good. Madara and the Akatsuki start a Fourth Shinobi War, every nation allied against them and still took major losses. In the end there were very few people left besides me and Madara. I hope that with this second chance I've been given I can change the future for the better." Naruto said with several emotions playing across his face during the speech.

Hiruzen snapped out of his shock and picked his pipe back up, refilling it before lighting it and taking a large draw while he tried to process all the information he just took in. After a moment he spoke "I believe what you said, but it's hard to take all of this in. Madara was supposed to be dead, why were you fighting him?"

"It was part of Akatsuki's plan, they had a rinnegan user who revived Madara. He tried to take all nine tailed beasts to become the Juubi jinchuriki." Naruto said as he looked at Hiruzen who was oddly calm all things considered. He guessed that nothing would really surprise someone who was referred to as the God of Shinobi, and had been a shinobi through two great wars.

"How strong are you Naruto?" Hiruzen asked as took another draw of smoke, looking towards Naruto.

"I'm not really sure anymore. Apparently I didn't keep my body, but I still have all of my knowledge of techniques. In the future I was the strongest shinobi alive. I was the only one able to defeat Madara, no one else even came close." Naruto said causing Hiruzen a small smile. Despite the mistreatment he received Naruto still grew up to be one of the greatest shinobi of all time. It was said that the only person who could defeat Madara was Hashirama, the Shodaime Hokage, yet Naruto of the future also accomplished it.

"You should try out your 'new' body Naruto. You need to know what you're capable of doing." Hiruzen said making Naruto nod.

"First things first" Naruto said as he channeled chakra to his eyes, sighing in relief when the world became clearer to him. "Looks like my rinnegan still works."

At this point Hiruzen dropped his pipe once again and his eyes bulged out of their sockets. The rinnegan was a thing of legends. Many people had never even heard of it, much less seen them in person. Even Hiruzen was dumbfounded. In his many years of experience he had never encountered someone with God's eyes, yet this 12 year old boy in front of him displayed them like it was nothing. He could practically feel the power radiating off of these eyes. Naruto smiled at Hiruzen's display before deciding to make it worse, if possible.

Naruto remained perfectly still for a moment before he was coated in yellow chakra once again, with his Rinnegan turning blood red with the nine tomoe circling his slitted bar pupil, indicating his full mastery over both sage mode and the Kyuubi's chakra.

All through the village everyone suddenly felt a warm peaceful feeling wash over their bodies, emanating from the Hokage tower. Most people simply blew it off and enjoyed the feeling.

While Hiruzen himself enjoyed the feeling of warmth, he had so many more questions to ask, starting with "W-W-What eyes are those?" as he pointed at Naruto's now red eyes.

Naruto chuckled a bit at seeing the God of Shinobi stutter but quickly got over it before replying. "This is called the Rinne Sharingan. It has all the abilities of the Rinnegan and Sharingan rolled into one. I can only access it while using the Kyuubi's chakra and Sage mode at the same time."

Naruto then let the chakra cloak dissipate and reverted to his regular Rinnegan. He held his arm out to the side and focused for a second before a black ball started forming in his hand. The ball formed and spun for a moment before exploding in his hand, singing the skin and burning the sleeve off of his jumpsuit. "Dammit!" He yelled in pain as the yellow chakra quickly engulfed his injured arm, healing it in just a few seconds. "Looks like I'll have to readjust my body to handle my brain."

"Yes it would seem that your chakra capacity and control aren't what they used to be. I'd suggest you work on that before attempting any of your higher level techniques." Hiruzen replied.

"By the way Jiji, Mizuki came to me just after I woke up in this time and tried to trick me into stealing the scroll of seals. I went along with it since I remembered doing the same thing on my first time here. I'm supposed to take him the scroll to the woods at midnight as a second chance to graduate." Naruto said shocking the elder Hokage. Mizuki was an instructor at the academy, working around the future of the village, and he was a traitor. This night really was a lot to take in.

"Naruto-kun, do you feel like you can fight Mizuki?" Sarutobi asked receiving a nod from Naruto.

"From what I remember of him he is a very low level chunin, I should be able to defeat him like I am." Naruto replied.

"Okay, take the scroll and meet Mizuki as planned, but instead of giving him the scroll, apprehend him. Be careful Naruto-kun." Hiruzen said before Handing Naruto the scroll.

Naruto took the scroll and left the office, intent on figuring out just what he could still do before meeting Mizuki.

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 **Not much to say here. I may have another chapter tonight. Review if you enjoy**


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto was jumping from tree to tree going over the strategy in his head. He knew he could defeat Mizuki at his current level but any mistake could lead to his death. A genin could defeat a Kage if they made the wrong mistake. He cleared his head of those thoughts as he spotted Mizuki in a clearing and dropped down to him.

"Well well, I'm surprised that you actually managed to pull it off. Congratulations Naruto. Now just give me the scroll and you pass." Mizuki said with a grin on his face, not suspecting a thing.

Naruto nodded and took the scroll off his back tossing it towards Mizuki. Mizuki grabbed the scroll and began to laugh. "Great! Now I can give this scroll to Orochimaru-sama and he will reward me with all the power I desire!" Mizuki yelled out loud.

Naruto played the part and looked dumbfounded. "What do you mean? You're giving the scroll to Orochimaru?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, and the best part is that they will never know I took the scroll. They'll blame the Kyuubi brat for it and have you executed!" Mizuki said while laughing maniacally.

"There's one problem with that plan." Naruto said, dropping the charade. He activated his Rinnegan and stared at Mizuki. "I won't let you leave here with it."

"As if you could stop me brat!" Mizuki yelled as he attached the scroll to his back and pulled out a giant shuriken. He drew back the shuriken to throw it when he heard a 'poof' behind his back. He turned quickly to see that the scroll was gone, replaced with a shadow clone of Naruto. "Oh shit…" Mizuki said as the clone began to glow white.

"Shadow clone explosion." Naruto said as his clone exploded, blasting Mizuki towards him. He drew back his fist and coated it with lightning the best he could, and when Mizuki got close enough, he slammed his fist into the traitor's face releasing the lighting chakra. Mizuki was launched into the ground creating a crater. When the smoke cleared Mizuki was lying among the rubble unconscious, with the upper half of his torso burnt and smoking. Naruto grinned before jumping down in the hole and applying a chakra suppression seal on Mizuki and tying his arms and legs together.

Naruto grabbed Mizuki and quickly made his way back to the Hokage tower to report to the elder Sarutobi. When he arrived he handed the unconscious Mizuki to the ANBU who took him to the prison. He then turned to the Hokage and smiled. "Mission Success Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen looked at the young blonde and smiled. "Good job Naruto-kun. Did you have any problems with him?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"No, he underestimated me and never even got a chance to attack. I took him down with a clone explosion and a lightning punch. After that I put a chakra suppression seal on him." Naruto replied.

Sarutobi reached into his desk and dug for a moment before he found what he was looking for. He came up and tossed the object to Naruto who caught it and smiled. Naruto looked down in his hands at the blue hitai-ate he now held. "Defeating a chunin level traitor is a step above the genin exam if you ask me. It seems like even with the setbacks you're already past chunin level. You'll have time to readjust and grow before the chunin exams in 6 months then you should be able to come out and expose your true self."

Naruto tied the hitai-ate around his forehead and nodded towards the Hokage. "Sounds good Jiji. Thanks."

"You're welcome Naruto-kun. Now go home and get some rest, team assignments will be at 8:00 in the morning." Hiruzen said as Naruto turned to leave.

Naruto made it almost to the door before he suddenly turned back. "Jiji if I might make a suggestion about the teams."

"Go ahead Naruto-kun I'm listening."

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Next morning at 8:00

Naruto sat in the classroom with all the other students listening to them buzz about who they wanted on their team and who they didn't want, what sensei they would get, and things like that. He was rather bored since he had no friends at this point in his life, and he already had a good suspicion of how the selection would go.

After several minutes of chatter, Iruka finally entered the room and gathered everyone's attention. "Good morning class. I know for some of you this is the last time you'll be in the classroom with me. Your jonin senseis should be here any time now to select their teams before taking you out to administer the true genin test."

At this point in his speech the classroom erupted with everyone questioning Iruka about the 'true test'.

"Calm down everyone. It's just as I said. It is up to your jonin sensei to give you a test to see if you are worthy of being shinobi." Iruka began and was interrupted as the first of the jonin senseis arrived. Surprisingly enough it was Kakashi Hatake, who had a terrible habit of being late all the time.

"What he says is true. If you fail our test then you will be sent back to the academy for another year of remediation. The failure rate of my particular exam is one hundred percent so far. No team has ever passed my exam." Kakashi finished while all the students were praying that he wasn't their sensei. Naruto just giggled as he remembered his test with Kakashi the first time.

"Alright then, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Hinata Hyuga." Kakashi said making all three students stand up. "Meet me at training ground 7 in 30 minutes. If you're late you fail." Naruto thought it was kind of ironic for Kakashi to preach about tardiness but shrugged it off before heading towards the door with his team in tow.

The next sensei to arrive was Kurenai Yuuhi. She picked her three students; Sakura Haruno, Shino Aburame, and Kiba Inuzuka, before leaving to have her team meeting at training ground 8.

Before Kurenai could leave Asuma Sarutobi showed up and picked Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akamichi, and Ino Yamanaka. They left and went to training ground 10.

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With Team 7

Naruto led his teammates out of the classroom and began walking towards training ground 7 with them in tow. Sasuke was pretty quiet like normal, and Hinata was trailing behind playing with her hands. Naruto quickly grew tired of the silence and tried to start up a conversation. "So I know we haven't been the best of friends until now" Naruto started, remembering all the fighting he had done with Sasuke. "But how about we put the past behind us and start fresh?" he finished holding his hand out towards Sasuke. Sasuke looked at Naruto for a moment and extended his own hand, grabbing Naruto's and shaking. "It'll make for better teamwork this way. I can't afford to have anyone slow me down." Sasuke said and Naruto sweatdropped. _"He's still a cocky prick but at least it's a start."_

Hinata watched curiously as the scene played out, wondering if Naruto would do something similar with her. She wasn't disappointed when Naruto looked at her. Of course he knew now that she had a crush on him and was too shy to admit it but she didn't know that. "Hinata you've always been pretty quiet, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself?"

Hinata turned a deep shade of red but managed not to faint. "W-W-Well… Y-You know that I'm the heiress to the Hyuga Clan. I-I am t-training in my f-f-family's taijutsu style, the g-gentle fist. My f-family doesn't support the teaching of o-o-other styles so I've trained e-exclusively with my f-f-father in taijutsu and c-chakra control until now." She stuttered out before looking at the ground.

"That's fine and all but what about _you_ , what do you like to do for fun?" Naruto asked with a small smile. He knew he was making her uncomfortable but that's what it took to get her out of her shell.

"I-I-I like to…" She paused for a moment "I like to cook. My f-favorite dish is cinnamon b-buns." She said quietly without looking up from the ground.

"Cool you should cook for us some time Hinata-chan! Naruto said pretty loud as he patted her on the shoulder. The sudden physical contact was more than she could handle and she fainted instantly. Luckily Naruto had quick reflexes and caught her before she hit the ground, hoisting her up bridal style and continuing on to the training ground.

Sasuke just smirked at the interaction of his teammates. Naruto seemed to have settled down since the days in class, although he was still a bit loud for Sasuke's taste; Hinata was exactly the opposite, very quiet and shy, but it wouldn't take long around Naruto for her to open up.

It wasn't long before the trio reached their destination where Naruto sat Hinata against a tree and then took a seat himself to wait on Kakashi. "Sasuke you should have a seat, something tells me that Kakashi-sensei will be a while." Naruto said before Sasuke nodded and sat down next to the other members of his team.

Naruto and Sasuke began to chat with each other for several minutes until Hinata woke up and joined in, after apologizing for fainting. It seems that they would be a good team after all. Unbeknownst to the three genin, the one-eyed jonin they now called sensei was hiding in a tree several yards away watching the scenario. _"They look like they will do fine in the teamwork area. Maybe this team will be the one to finally pass._ _"_ Kakashi thought as he smiled under his mask.

Kakashi jumped down from the tree and started walking toward the three genin while holding his hand up in a waving motion. "Sorry I'm" "YOU'RE LATE!" He began before being interrupted by Naruto who was now standing up pointing at him and glaring daggers. "Sorry, a black cat crossed my path on the way here so I had to take the long way around." He finished causing the three genin to sweatdrop. He simply responded with an eye smile before continuing. "My name is Kakashi Hatake and should you pass my test, I'll be your jonin sensei. First I'd like everyone to introduce themselves. Ill go first. My name is Kakashi, I like reading my book and not much else. I dislike many things. My goals are… I haven't really thought of anything. You next, Blondie."

Naruto scoffed at the nickname but let it pass. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen and training. I dislike those who try to harm me or my precious people. My goal is to become the greatest Hokage ever, Believe it!" Naruto said while fist pumping the air.

"Now you broody." Kakashi said pointing at Sasuke. He earned another scoff at his choice of name. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I like training to become stronger. I don't really dislike anything, but I hate a few things, like a certain someone. My goals… I don't really have a goal. It's more of an ambition really. I just have to become strong enough to kill that certain someone.

"Okay now you loudmouth." Kakashi pointed at Hinata, causing her to turn red. "My n-name is Hinata Hyuga. I like cinnamon b-buns and c-cooking. I dislike those who are m-mean to others for no reason. My goal is to become the Hyuga clan head and unite the main and branch house under one roof." Hinata said, building determination towards the end.

"Okay then, I have a loud blonde, an emo avenger, and a shy clan heir. This should be interesting." Kakashi said mostly to himself. "Alright here's the plan. I've got two bells on my belt, and your job is to get them from me. If you get a bell you pass my test, if you don't get a bell then you spend the next year back at the academy. You have until lunch." Kakashi said lazily before reaching into his pouch and pulling out his… Icha Icha Paradise book. The three students sweatdropped but quickly regained their composure before they leapt away and into the woods to formulate a plan.


	4. Chapter 4

Three sets of eyes stared towards the middle of the clearing where a certain lazy one-eyed jonin stood reading his little orange book. Said jonin could easily sense where the three genin were hiding; he wasn't an elite jonin for nothing after all.

"So Naruto, any ideas?" Sasuke whispered to Naruto, who simply nodded in return.

"Well, to be honest, I could probably steal the bells by myself given that he is underestimating us so much, but I think the point of this test is teamwork." Naruto replied

"How could you take them? No offense but you were the dead last and he is a jonin. And how is the test about teamwork, there's only two bells and three of us, it's meant to see which of us are stronger and to send the weaker back to the academy." Sasuke replied with a puzzled look.

"I'll explain soon, don't worry, but for now just trust that I'm much stronger than I let on. About the bells; Konoha values teamwork above all else. I don't think they would make a test where teammates were supposed to betray each other. I think the hidden objective here is for us to show that we are capable of working together as a unit."

Both Sasuke and Hinata, even if she did have a crush on him, had trouble believing that Naruto was capable of such deep thought.

I-I-I t-think N-Naruto-kun is right. It only m-makes sense." Hinata said in a voice that was quiet even for a whisper.

"Okay then we're back to the beginning then. What's the plan?" Sasuke whispered back, accepting their ideas.

Naruto put his hand to his chin in a thinking pose for a moment before beginning "Hinata, can you henge into a kunai?" he said to which she simply nodded. "Okay then, Hinata will henge into a kunai, and I'll throw her among some others. He'll dodge them, at which point she will unhenge and grab a bell. We can distract him with some low level jutsu, just be careful not to hurt Hinata-chan." He finished getting a nod from his teammates.

"Okay Hinata-chan lets begin." Naruto said as Hinata disappeared in a poof of smoke, replaced by a single kunai that Naruto grabbed before it hit the ground. He reached in his pouch and pulled out a couple more. He looked at Sasuke and nodded; Sasuke nodded back and Naruto threw the kunai towards Kakashi with pinpoint accuracy. Kakashi noticed the kunai and simply stepped to the side to avoid them.

From his spot on the edge of the clearing Naruto quickly did a set of handseals and slammed his palms on the ground "Doton: Doryuheki." He said as a wall of mud formed around Kakashi blocking his escape. Next to him Sasuke did his own handseals "Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu." He fired several small fireballs towards Kakashi, forcing him back to where he originally dodged the kunai. Just as Kakashi stepped back by the kunai he heard a poof behind him. He turned just in time to catch a palm strike to the thigh from Hinata before she reached for the bells. She grabbed the bells and jumped back quickly before Kakashi could retaliate. Just as she hit the ground Kakashi disappeared in a poof of smoke, revealing only a log in his place. Hinata looked down in shock as the bells she had disappeared as well.

Before she could react she felt something grab her ankles and look down just in time to see the ground rapidly approaching as she was sunk up to her neck. Kakashi popped back out of the ground beside her with an eye smile. "Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu. You almost had me, congrats on that, but not good enough. Now to find your teammates and finish this."

"Dammit! It didn't work and now he's got Hinata-chan." Naruto said punching his fist in frustration. "Come on Sasuke, give me some fire."

Sasuke immediately went through a set of handseals and took a deep breath causing his chest to swell. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu." Said said as he released a stream of fire from him mouth towards Kakashi.

"Futon: Daitoppa." Naruto said as he finished his own handseals, blowing out a gust of wind, combining it with Sasuke's fire and making the fireball turn white hot and nearly double in size. Kakashi noticed the attack coming and was impressed that two fresh genin could manage such an attack. Impressed as he was, he still leapt into the air dodging the fireball before going through his own hand seals. "Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu." He said as he spat out several water bullets in the direction that the fireball came from.

Naruto and Sasuke quickly split apart and dodged as the water bullets tore into the ground where they were just standing. "Kagebunshin no jutsu." Kakashi said as he created a clone to go after Naruto while the original went after Sasuke.

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With Naruto

As soon as Naruto landed he had to quickly roll to the side to avoid an axe kick from Kakashi and once again had to jump backwards to dodge a sweeping kick again. Once Naruto landed again he immediately pushed forward and threw a punch at kakashi who easily dodged it before throwing an uppercut into Naruto's stomach. Kakashi was satisfied he had finished off Naruto by knocking him out but was surprised when Naruto disappeared in a poof of smoke. "Shit." Kakashi said before Naruto appeared behind him and threw a roundhouse kick into the back of his head. His eyes widened before he disappeared in a poof of smoke. Naruto smirked at his victory before going to help Sasuke.

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With Sasuke

Sasuke barely landed before he jumped once again to avoid a low kick from Kakashi; while he was still in the air Kakashi jumped up and spun around dropping an axe kick into Sasuke's face slamming him into the ground hard. Sasuke got up slowly but got up none-the-less. He realized that he was running low on chakra so he needed to try to get the bells as quick as possible. He jumped forward once more and drew back to punch Kakashi before he received a kick to the side of his head, launching him into a nearby tree before sliding to the ground unconscious.

Kakashi checked his watch and noticed that there was still fifteen minutes before noon so he went to collect Sasuke and put him in a safe place by Hinata before finding Naruto. He walked over to the tree and bent over to pick up Sasuke when he felt something tug on his belt. He quickly turned back to see Naruto sinking back into the ground behind him with a smile on his face. Kakashi cussed himself for dropping his guard before gathering up Sasuke and walking back to the middle of the field where Naruto was freeing Hinata.

"Congratulations Naruto, you got both bells, now who do you want to give the other one to? Which one will you send back to the academy? The choice is yours." Kakashi said as he looked between Sasuke who was just regaining consciousness and Hinata. Naruto handed one bell to Hinata and smiled at her while holding on to the other. Kakashi frowned at that, he hoped that his student would give some speech about teamwork or something of that sort but looks like he had another failure. He was surpised, however, when Naruto tossed the other bell to Sasuke who caught it and threw it on the ground, followed by Hinata.

"We're a team, and we stick together." Sasuke said as he looked at Kakashi with conviction in his eyes.

"Right. It's a-all or n-none." Hinata added in.

"So if anyone goes back to the academy, we all go." Naruto finished and Kakashi could swear he saw Obito standing behind Naruto smiling.

"Well since you put it that way" Kakashi started as thunder clouds formed behind him "YOU ALL… pass." He finished with a thumbs up as the storm went away.

All three students sweatdropped at his antics but regained their composure quickly and congratulated each other.

"In the ninja world, we are given a set of strict rules to follow. We must follow the rules to a 'T' in order to be efficient Shinobi. Those who break these rules are considered to be trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash." Kakashi said in a firm voice, commanding the full attention of all three genin. "You are the first to ever pass my test, so I'd like to tell you a story. Once upon a time, several years ago, there was a shinobi here in Konoha who was called the White Fang. It was said he had strength comparable to the sannin in his prime. He lived his life strictly by the Shinobi Code of Conduct. One day he was given a mission to foreign lands, a very important mission with high stakes for the village. Everything was going great until one of his teammates were captured by the enemy. The Shinobi Code states that you should finish the mission no matter the cost, but something in him that day told him different. He was still able to complete the mission without the missing team member but decided instead to rescue the man, causing him to fail the mission. He did what he felt was truly right in his heart and returned to the village to report the failed mission." Kakashi paused here for a moment, noticing the three genin sitting cross legged in front of him taking in every word. "He returned to the village with no casualties after saving his teammates life, however he was ridiculed by the village for failing such an important mission. Even the very man he saved turned his back on the White Fang and sided with the rest of the people. The ridicule, the stares, and the whispers were so bad everywhere he went over the next few weeks that it threw him into a depression. He stopped leaving his house at all and eventually quit eating anything. Over the next while he became more and more depressed until one day he couldn't take it any longer and he took his own life."

Kakashi paused once again, this time fighting back the tears that threatened to fall from his visible eye. He then reached into his pouch and pulled out a scroll before unsealing a sword from it. The sword was short, a tanto judging by the looks of it, and had a small circular hand guard. He made a quick vertical slash and the genin were surprised when the sword left behind a streak of white chakra. "This sword, the White Light Chakra Sabre, was the sword that the White Fang used during his prime. It's the only reminder I have of my father, Sakumo Hatake Konoha's White Fang. Because of my father's death when I was eight years old, I grew up believing in following the Shinobi Code to the letter. Every mission I went on I used the code as law, growing into a cold, disconnected shinobi in the process. It wasn't until my first mission as a jonin during the third great ninja war that I realized that I was wrong. I was in charge of my team in Minato-sensei's absence, and during our mission my teammate Rin was captured. I chose to abandon her and complete the mission, however my other teammate Obito Uchiha argued with me, saying we needed to save RIn, that those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash. He left to do just that while I went ahead to finish the mission. A few minutes passed before I realized that he was right. I returned and found Obito fighting a jonin about to be killed. I rushed in and took down the attacker just before he delivered the final blow. However there was another shinobi hidden that I didn't see in time and he came at me, cutting my eye and rendering me blind. Just before he finished me Obito awakened his sharingan and killed the man. We then went and rescued Rin, but as we were escaping the cave where she was tied up, another enemy used a jutsu to collapse the cave. Because I was blind in one eye I missed a rock that was falling that should have killed me, but Obito pushed me out of the way and sacrificed himself to save me. After the collapse we dug through the fallen boulders to find Obito still alive, but only just. The entire right side of his body was crushed under a boulder."

Kakashi paused once again as he lifted his hitai-ate revealing his Sharingan. "In his dying moments Obito decided to give me his left sharingan eye to replace the one that I lost. He wanted me to take his eye so he could see the world through me. After his death we carried on and completed the mission, turning the war in our favor and leading to our eventual victory. Every since I have remembered the words that he said that day. 'Those who break the rules are considered trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash." Kakashi finished his story and wiped the tears from his eyes. The genin were on the verge of tears themselves from listening to his story. He regained his composure after a few minutes before looking at his team.

"Congratulations on becoming the Official Team 7. Meet back here tomorrow at 0800 sharp to begin your training." Kakashi said before the genin nodded and everyone dispersed.


	5. Chapter 5

It had been a few months since Naruto was placed on Team 7. The team has spent the time doing simple D-rank missions to build teamwork skills and training in various skills. Naruto himself, thanks to using the Shadow clone training, had made good progress in increasing his chakra reserves, chakra control, and body strength to a level where he could use some of his old techniques. Sasuke had activated his sharingan, though he only had 1 tomoe in each eye. He had been training with his family's scrolls on fire style jutsu. Hinata was progressing nicely in a modified version of her family's taijutsu style, training regularly with her father. Naruto still hasn't told his teammates the truth about his 'past life', but was planning to do so soon.

Currently we find them in the Hokage tower mission hall, arguing with Iruka and the aged Hokage.

"I think we're ready for a better mission Old Man! I'm tired of dealing with that damn cat and digging ditches, I wan't a real shinobi mission!" Naruto shouted as Iruka just shook his head.

"Naruto you know how the mission system works, you haven't got the experience for a higher ranked mission yet." Iruka calmly replied.

"Now Iruka; maybe Naruto is right, they have been doing extremely well lately and I think I may have the perfect mission for them." Hiruzen said as he puffed on his pipe.

"But Hokage-sama, they-" Iruka began but was cut off by Naruto

"Yea! Bring it on we can handle anything!" Naruto cheered making Iruka's eye twitch. Naruto already knew what this particular mission was, he had discussed it with the Hokage beforehand to make sure it was assigned to his team, but he didn't want to let the world know yet so he put on a show.

"Alright then, Iruka if you would bring Tazuna in please?" Hiruzen said before Iruka sighed in defeat and left the room.

He returned a few minutes later with an older man in tow; the man wore a large pointed hat and hat a towel hung around his neck, and had a faint smell of sake on his breath. He looked over the group in the room and then back to Naruto where he stopped. "I thought I hired 4 ninja?! Not 1 ninja and a few kids! This group looks like they couldn't beat up a fly, especially the blonde one!" He yelled out causing Naruto's eye to twitch. Of course Naruto remembered this speech but it still pissed him off.

"Hey you old bastard, want me to show you how weak I am?" Naruto yelled out as he stepped towards Tazuna and glared at him.

"Yea I wish you'd try pipsqueak!" Tazuna replied stepping forward and meeting Naruto's glare.

Naruto drew back to punch the man and started into the punch when Sasuke grabbed him "Calm down doofus if you kill the client then there's no mission." Sasuke said as he drug Naruto back. Naruto quickly stuck his tongue out at Tazuna before he was dragged out of the room.

Now that Naruto and Sasuke were outside Kakashi finished gathering the mission information and told Tazuna to meet them back at the village gates tomorrow morning at 0800. He then walked back outside to find his team waiting for him.

"Alright team, go home and get some rest; pack for a three week mission. He wants an escort back to the wave country, and protection while he finishes the bridge. We don't expect anything worse than some thugs and bandits so we should be able to handle this no problem. We leave at 0800, don't be late." Kakashi said to the three genin who all nodded in understanding before parting ways to prepare for the mission.

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Next morning 0800 at the gate leading out of the village

All of Team 7 plus Tazuna were standing at the gates preparing to leave; Kakashi was doing one last check of his teams supplies to make sure they brought the essentials since this was their first mission outside of the village. After a few minutes he okayed everyone and they began their walk towards Wave Country. Everything went well for the first few hours until they were nearing Fire Country's borders. As they were walking along the path everyone spotted a couple of puddles in the road but thought nothing of it; except Naruto who knew what was coming, and Kakashi who had a interesting thought. "It hasn't rained in weeks, why would there be a puddle in the road?"

Kakashi put his guard up, noticing Naruto do the same, but decided not to alarm the others in the team. It didn't take long for his suspicions to be confirmed when the puddles exploded into smoke. 2 figures dashed out of the smoke, and before anyone could react they had a barbed chain wrapped around Kakashi. Sasuke and Hinata turned just in time to see them jerk the chain tight, shredding Kakashi into pieces in a shower of blood. The apparent leader of the pair, the one with only one horn, looked towards the other and chuckled. "One down, eyy Meizu?"

"Now that the leader is gone these brats shouldn't be a problem." The man now identified as Meizu said as he looked toward the three remaining genin and the civilian.

The two men then dashed towards opposite side of the group intending on catching them in the chain. Just as the chain was about to hit them Naruto pulled out a kunai and stuck the tip through one of the links before jumping up and backwards, making the chain miss the group. Sasuke and Hinata were both momentarily stunned but quickly regained their wits after Naruto saved them.

"Sasuke take the left, Hinata get the right!" Naruto yelled out as he drove the kunai into a tree, locking the brothers in place.

Sasuke and Hinata quickly jumped towards their respective target intent on disabling them while they were bound up but never got the chance as the pair of men disconnected the chain from their gauntlets and jumped away. Once they dodged the attack the men both dashed toward Naruto, labelling him as the next highest threat. The unnamed man was the first to reach him with his hand drawn back ready to stab Naruto with his clawed gauntlet. He thrust his hand at Naruto's face only to be disappointed when Naruto ducked under the blow. Just as Naruto ducked Meizu was on top of him with a knee to the face. Naruto threw his hand up in time to block the knee before delivering a punch to Meizu's gut, knocking him back several feet. With Meizu thrown back Naruto quickly spun around throwing his elbow into the other man's face. The unnamed man was launched in the air by the strike but quickly righted himself and prepared to strike Naruto again when Sasuke jumped up and delivered a spin kick to his head, knocking him into a tree. He wasted no time getting up and jumping towards Sasuke and swinging his gauntlet towards Sasuke's chest only to be blocked by a kunai. He tried to throw a kick in at Sasuke's side but that was also blocked. The man was beginning to get furious that none of his attacks were working. He tried once more to impale Sasuke with his gauntlet, but Sasuke sidestepped the attack and buried his kunai into the man's side before kicking him away.

The man let out a howl of pain as he grabbed the kunai and pulled it out of his side before throwing it to the ground. "You little bastard, you're gonna pay for that!" He shouted in a clearly pained voice. He once more made a dash towards Sasuke but was caught by surprise half way there when he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down to see Hinata standing there with her palm against his chest right above his heart, her byakugan active. He tried to cuss her but when he opened his mouth all that came out was blood. He coughed once more before slumping to the ground dead.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

With Naruto and Meizu

Meizu slid back several feet from the punch Naruto just delivered before righting himself and jumping toward Naruto with his gauntlet cocked back ready to impale the brat. He quickly got in range and thrust his fist forward straight at Naruto's chest. Naruto simply twisted to the side allowing the claw to go right by his chest before he grabbed Meizu's arm with one arm and chopped downward with the other. The blow landed with an audible crack, causing Meizu to scream in pain. Naruto grimaced a bit at the sound of bones breaking but quickly got over it. Without letting go of the broken arm he jerked it forward, causing Meizu to scream once again and lunge his body forward to relieve the pain. Once he lunged Naruto let go of the arm and quickly shifted his grip to Meizu's neck, choking him. Naruto twisted towards Hinata and Sasuke to check on them, making Meizu turn with him. The last thing Meizu saw before his world went dark was his brother falling to the ground dead. "Gozu!" He tried to shout but nothing but a cough managed to come out. Once he was unconscious Naruto lowered him to the ground before removing a spool of wire from his bag and tying him up against a tree. It was now that Kakashi decided to make an appearance. "Good work team." He simply said as he hopped down from a nearby tree. Sasuke, Hinata, and Tazuna all shifted their gaze to the bloody spot where Kakashi was killed to find nothing but a shredded log.

"Wha… we thought you were dead Kakashi-sensei…" Sasuke stumbled out as he looked from the dead attacker to the log and back to Kakashi.

Hinata also looked around the battlefield stopping on Gozu's body for a moment before she hit her knees and puked up her breakfast. She stopped for just a moment before beginning to dry heave again. She finally finished puking and began sobbing as she stared at the ground.

"The first kill is always the hardest, but don't beat yourself up Hinata." Kakashi said as he knelt down beside her and put a hand on her shoulder.

Naruto was quickly by her other side. "Hinata-chan, you can't beat yourself up like this, killing is a necessary part of being a shinobi. It's good to feel remorse when you are forced to kill, that's what separates us from monsters." Naruto said as he reached a hand out and cupped her chin, raising her face until their eyes met. "It's okay Hinata-chan. We're here for you always."

"We're more than just teammates, we're friends. And friends are always there for each other." Sasuke added in.

Kakashi was very proud of his team, they had just taken down two chunin level opponents with ease and then had their first true bonding experience. It seemed like this team would go very far in the future.

Kakashi enjoyed the moment briefly before he decided he had business to attend to. He walked over to the restrained form of Meizu and squatted down to eye level with him. He touched his palm to Meizu's head and channeled a bit of lightning chakra, instantly waking up Meizu. As soon as he was conscious again Meizu yelled out in pain once again from his severely fractured arm. Kakashi quickly coated his hand in lightning chakra before making a horizontal slice above the fracture, watching the arm fall to the ground with a thump as the lightning burned out the nerves in the arm, numbing it so that Meizu would calm down. Once he stopped yelling Kakashi looked him in the eyes with a sharp glare.

"Who sent you here?" Kakashi said in a cold tone

Meizu simply spit on the ground in reply. "I won't tell you a thing."

Kakashi's reply was a backhand right on the face. "How about now?"

"Never!" Meizu replied

Kakashi then pulled out a kunai and stabbed it into Meizu's remaining arm causing him to grunt in pain. He then began to twist the blade slowly until Meizu's grunts became screams. "Are you gonna crack yet?"

"…No" Meizu said hesitantly this time.

"Alright" Kakashi said as he stabbed the kunai into his leg before pulling out another and stabbing it into the other leg. Meizu was almost squealing now but still not talking. Kakashi grabbed both kunai and twisted them. Meizu squealed and yelled out "Fine I'll talk!"

Kakashi stopped twisting the kunai and pulled them out before Meizu began to speak. "We were sent here by Gato to kill the bridge builder."

"Good, are there others?" Kakashi asked.

"I don't know. He never mentioned other shinobi." Meizu replied.

Kakashi, having all the information he needed, chopped Meizu in the back of the neck, rendering him unconscious. Kakashi then went through a set of handseals before slamming his palms on the ground. There was a poof of smoke, and when it cleared there was a small pug standing there. "Yo, whatcha need Kakashi?" The pug said.

"Pakkun, I need you to go let Hokage-sama know that Meizu is here and have him send a team to arrest him. We are upgrading this mission to A-rank but continuing on." Kakashi said before Pakkun nodded and took off.

"Alright team, we need to step up the pace now and get Tazuna out of harm's way." Kakashi said before they took off again, this time as fast as the civilian could go. Everything was uneventful the rest of the way to the border between Fire and Wave Country. The group reached the border fairly quick and boarded a small boat to take them across the river that acted as the natural border for Wave Country. It didn't take long for the boat to carry them across the river and into Wave country where the group disembarked once again.

"Okay it's only a couple more miles to my house where we can rest for the night before starting on the bridge in the morning." Tazuna said pointing off into the distance. Kakashi motioned for him to lead the way and Team 7 began to follow him. They didn't make it far before there was a small rustling noise in a nearby bush.

Naruto quickly pulled out a kunai and threw it at the noise, knowing he would hit nothing but a rabbit. He quickly inspected to find a white snow rabbit with a few hairs missing from its side, a kunai buried in the ground right behind it.

Kakashi quickly took note of the rabbit's hair. _"It's spring, so that rabbit should have darker fur. Since it's white that must mean it has been kept in a cage. Someone must be using it for a Kawarimi."_ It was then that he heard a whizzing noise coming from his back. "Everyone, get down now!" Kakashi yelled as he dove and tackled Tazuna to the ground with him. Everyone landed on the ground just as a large sword flew over the top of them and lodged into a nearby tree.


	6. Chapter 6

All the members of Team 7 looked up to the sword to find a tall man standing on the blade. The man was wearing striped pants, no shirt, and camouflage sleeves, but his noticeable feature was the bandages around his lower face and the fact that his hitai-ate was on sideways. He stood upon the sword glaring towards Tazuna with a blank expression in his eyes.

Kakashi immediately recognized the man. "Well if it isn't Zabuza-kun, the Demon of the Mist." He said as he stared toward Zabuza.

"Hn. It's an honor to be recognized by the famous Sharingan Kakashi." Zabuza replied with a chuckle "Now if you'll just hand over the bridgebuilder I'll be on my way."

Kakashi raised a hand up to his hitai-ate and raised it up to his forehead, revealing his Sharingan eye. "Team, guard Tazuna, don't get into this fight; it's way over your heads." He said as he looked towards his team before turning to Zabuza "You know I can't do that Zabuza, it's my mission to protect Tazuna and I never fail my mission."

"It's my mission to kill the old man and I'll have you know that I don't fail my missions either." Zabuza replied as he jumped down from the sword and grabbed it, pulling it from the tree with no problem. He quickly stuck the sword on his back and brought his hands into the seal of confrontation. "Kirigakure no Jutsu."

A thick shroud of mist quickly enveloped the whole area, blocking out the vision of everyone, even Kakashi's Sharingan.

"Everyone be careful. He is a master of Silent Killing. He will kill you before you even know that you're dead." Kakashi said quietly.

Suddenly a disembodied voice came out of the mist. "There are 8 places on the human body that will cause instant death when cut… but I'm sure you already know that so I'll skip the boring stuff." Zabuza said.

There was a brief moment of silence before Kakashi sensed something behind him. He turned just in time to see Zabuza swinging his large blade toward Tazuna. He dashed forward, unsure if he would make it on time, pulling out a kunai and preparing to block the attack. He was almost in range when Naruto quickly pulled out a kunai and stepped into the slash, raising the kunai and blocking it, though he struggled to match Zabuza's strength.

Kakashi, seeing that Naruto stopped the attack, quickly went on the offensive trying to stab Zabuza in the side. Zabuza noticed this and quickly jumped back to avoid the stab before turning and slashing downwards with his oversized sword. Kakashi halted and jumped back to avoid the blow but due to the length of the sword he still received a shallow cut on his arm causing him to grunt in pain. He quickly got over the pain and blurred through some hand seals before sticking his hand to his mouth with his thumb and index finger in a circle. "Katon: Karyuendan!" he called out as he expelled a stream of flames that took the form of a dragon. Zabuza jumped backwards to avoid the attack before having to jump to the side once again as the fire changed direction and followed him. He dodged the attack for another moment before he quickly did a set of handseals. "Suiton: Suijinheki!" he said as a wall of water rose from the lake he was now standing on to block the fire dragon. The dragon collided with the wall of water, the attacks cancelled each other out, shrouding the area in steam.

When the steam cleared Kakashi was standing on the water as well, the two jonin eyeballing each other, waiting for the other to make a move. Sasuke and Hinata looked at them in shock. This was the first time either had ever seen two shinobi of this caliber battle. _"The killing intent is so strong… it's so much that I feel like a weaker person would be tempted to kill themselves just to get away from it. So this is what it's like when two jonin fight."_ Sasuke thought as he shivered a bit. Hinata had a similar thought. They really were outclassed here.

Zabuza was the first to move, running towards Kakashi with his sword drawn back ready to strike. He made a horizontal slash only for Kakashi to block it with a kunai. He corrected himself and spun around delivering a vertical slash, which Kakashi also blocked. Zabuza was about to attack once again when he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down to find a second Kakashi emerging from the water, with a kunai buried in his chest. Kakashi grinned at his victory before Zabuza burst into water. _"Mizu Bunshin"_ Kakashi thought as he turned to watch Zabuza cleave through his clone in a pood of smoke. Zabuza then turned towards him and threw the sword, causing him to duck to avoid it. As soon as the sword passed above his head, he saw Zabuza turn to water and splash back into the lake. He quickly turned around and saw Zabuza emerge from the lake and grab the sword before slashing downward. Kakashi didn't have time to block before the sword hit him on the neck, cleaving him in two. Zabuza grinned, happy that his deception strategy worked out.

His joy was short lived however as Kakashi turned into water. He was about to look for Kakashi when he felt the cold steel of a blade against his neck. "This fight is over." Kakashi said as he held a kunai against Zabuza's throat. Zabuza stiffened up briefly before he ducked backwards and to the side and grabbed Kakashi's hand in one quick motion. He used his momentum to throw Kakashi over his shoulder. Kakashi righted himself and landed upright skidding back on the surface of the water.

"It's time to end this." Zabuza said as he began a long string of handseals while chanting them out loud. Kakashi's Sharingan was spinning slowly as he began to copy each seal, keeping up with Zabuza. They both finished at the same time. "Suiton: Suiryuendan!" both said as two large water dragons rose of from the lake and began fighting for dominance. Kakashi and Zabuza both dashed forward, kunai clashing against sword before they both jumped back again.

Zabuza started to run forward again but stopped when Kakashi did the same. He ran to the left and was shocked again when Kakashi did the same. _"Is he-"_ Zabuza thought before being cut off by Kakashi.

"Reading your mind? Yes." Kakashi said out loud.

Zabuza put his hands in the confrontation seal, with Kakashi following along once again. He quickly moved them to make a circle in front of his face, Kakashi doing the same once more.

"Bastard! All you're doing is-" Zabuza yelled out

"Copying me you monkey!" Kakashi finished. As Zabuza's eyes turned red from the anger

"I'll make sure you can never use that eye or mouth again" Zabuza yelled as he quickly began another series of handseals, noticing Kakashi doing the same. As he looked at Kakashi he saw an image of himself behind Kakashi doing the seals. _"Is this one of his genjutsu?"_ Zabuza thought, causing him to momentarily lose focus. That was all it took as Kakashi completed the jutsu.

"Suiton: Daibafuku no Jutsu!" Kakashi yelled as a large section of the lake rose up and swirled around him for a moment before shooting forward and slamming into Zabuza. Zabuza was picked up by the massive wave and sent crashing through the landscape, uprooting trees and destroying everything in its path. It finally ended with Zabuza crashing against a large tree, almost knocking him out.

"This fight is over." Kakashi said as he jumped down in front of Zabuza.

"H-How… Can you see the future?" Zabuza said quietly.

"Yes. And in yours I see death." Kakashi said as he glared into Zabuza's eyes with his Sharingan spinning slowly. With that Kakashi started in with a kunai to cut Zabuza's throat, but before he could reach him several needles appeared from nowhere and stuck themselves through Zabuza's neck.

Kakashi quickly pulled back and looked to the source of the needles, seeing a man in a nearby tree. The man was short, wearing a green haiori over red pinstriped shirt and pants and had a brown sash tied around his waist. His most distinguishing feature, however, was the white mask with red swirls and the Kirigakure symbol on the forehead.

"You were right. Death was in future." The mysterious man said as he jumped down from the tree.

Kakashi quickly bent down and checked Zabuza's pulse, finding none. _"He's definitely dead."_ Kakashi thought before standing back up and looking at the man in the mask. "Judging by that mask, you must me a hunter-nin?"

"Yes, I have been following Zabuza for some time now waiting for a chance to take him out. I thank you for helping me." The hunter-nin said nodding toward Kakashi. He then bent over and started to grab Zabuza. "Now I must take the body back to Kirigakure so that he may be disposed of properly."

He stood up with Zabuza on his shoulders and started to leave before he had to drop Zabuza and quickly dodge a kunai. "Wait just a second. Isn't the protocol for hunter-nin to destroy the body on site? To make sure that none of the village secrets get out?" Naruto said as he started walking towards the pair.

"Naruto! He's doing his job, attacking him could be seen as an act of aggression from Konoha to Kiri. Let him leave if he chooses not to destroy the body here." Kakashi said in a stern tone looking right at Naruto.

"Trust me Kakashi-sensei, this man isn't who he says he is." Naruto replied as he blurred through a set of hand seals. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu." He said before expelling a stream of fire out of his mouth towards Zabuza's body.

Just as the fire was about to consume Zabuza, a shield of ice shot of from the ground in front of him blocking the fire. The fireball quickly dissipated leaving the ice untouched around Zabuza. The hunter-nin jumped towards Naruto and held up a one-handed handseal. "Hissatsu hyoso." He said as the wall of ice shot several spikes out trying to impale Naruto and Kakashi. Both shinobi jumped back to dodge the spikes before the hunter-nin jumped to Zabuza's side and tossed him over his shoulder before shunshinning away.

"Dammit! He was a fake, you were right Naruto. I should have finished him when I had the chance." Kakashi said as punched his palm. He then covered up his Sharingan and turned to the rest of his group. "Alright guys, let's get Tazuna home to safety. Zabuza is not dead so we need to rest up and train you so you'll be able to help." Kakashi said and started walking off before collapsing face down. "Okay I guess I used too much chakra… I can't move my body." He said with a small chuckle.

Naruto bent down and picked up Kakashi, throwing him over his shoulder. "Alright guys, let's get to Tazuna's so we can get some rest." Naruto said as they began their walk. Unbeknownst to everyone else in the group, Naruto was channeling his chakra into Kakashi, accelerating his healing process and replenishing his reserves that were down to near nothing.

It didn't take long before the group made it to Tazuna's house where Naruto situated Kakashi in a bed so that he could get some rest. After he got Kakashi in bed he went back downstairs to talk with his team and maybe get some food.

As soon as he reached the bottom of the stairs he could smell food coming from the kitchen and made his way in there to find Tazuna, Hinata, Sasuke, and Tazuna's daughter Tsunami gathered around the table with several bowls of soup spread around. Tsunami noticed him first and greeted him "Naruto-kun, have a seat, I just finished cooking udon soup. I set a place for you." She said pointing to the empty seat next to Hinata.

Naruto graciously nodded before moving to his seat and sitting down. "Thank you Tsunami-san." Naruto said before he scarfed down his bowl and several more that Tsunami offered him as well. The three genin finished their meals before thanking Tsunami and leaving the table.

"Guys get some rest, tomorrow we need to train. Zabuza is not dead and he has an accomplice. They'll be back as soon as Zabuza has had a chance to recover." Naruto said earning a nod from the other genin before they all headed off to bed to get some rest. Tomorrow would surely be a rough day.


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning after breakfast, the team was standing in a clearing in the woods behind Tazuna's house.

"Alright everyone, I'm still a bit sore from the encounter yesterday but we have a lot to accomplish and not a lot of time to do it." Kakashi said earning a nod from the genin in front of him. "Zabuza will be back and this time he will have his accomplice, the hunter-nin with him. I will engage Zabuza with Sasuke while Naruto and Hinata engage the hunter-nin."

"Do you think it wise to put two genin against the hunter-nin instead of three when we don't know his abilities?" Sasuke asked

"Well from what we saw, the hunter-nin uses ice style moves. I've heard that the ice style is nearly indestructible, but Hinata's jyuken should be able to see the chakra and destroy the ice without problem, while Naruto himself should be able to handle whatever else the hunter-nin throws at him, he's well above chunin level in all fields. When we're done with this next week's worth of training you two should be able to easily defeat the hunter-nin even if he is jonin level." Kakashi replied, pulling several small pieces of paper out of his vest pocket handing one to each genin.

"As for Zabuza, he is a strong water user, so if what I suspect is true then Sasuke will be great long range assistance to me against Zabuza. What I just handed you is chakra paper. If you channel chakra into it, it will tell you your elemental nature." Kakashi continued as all the genin channeled their chakra into the paper.

Sasuke channeled chakra into his paper and watched as it crinkled up before catching fire and burning away. "So I have fire and lightning right?" he asked for confirmation earning a nod from Kakashi. "Just as I thought. As an Uchiha it's all but guaranteed that you have fire, but I figured you had the lightning affinity as well." Kakashi said.

Kakashi then turned to look at Hinata who channeled chakra to her own paper, surprised when it split in half and both sides turned soggy. "S-So I have w-water and wind?" Hinata asked.

"Yes, and might I add that it is rare for a genin to have more than one affinity, most don't develop their second or third affinity until they are seasoned chunin or even jonin. Also, wind is a rare element in Konoha, I can only think of one other currently alive… actually that's probably two." Kakashi said, looking at Naruto as he finished.

Naruto already knew that because of his Rinnegan, he had an affinity for every element and the ability to use the sub-elements, so this test was pointless to him but everyone expected him to do it so what the hell. He channeled his chakra into the paper and everyone watched in amazement as the paper split into four equal pieces; one crinkled up, one became soggy, one caught fire, and one turned to dust. Naruto noticed everyone staring at him with their eyes bulging out of their heads before putting his hand behind his head and chuckling. "I guess I have some explaining to do, huh?"

Before anyone could say yes or no, Naruto blurred through a set of handseals and slapped him his palm to the ground causing several seal kanji to spread out on the ground around them before a purple dome formed around the group. After a second the kanji and the dome faded away.

Everyone looked confused for a moment before Naruto decided to clarify "Privacy seal, just to make sure none of Zabuza's associates are listening in. For now I'll keep things short, but I promise to tell you all the full story when we get home. I should've already told you all but that's behind us now." Naruto stopped briefly and closed his eyes before opening them again, revealing his Rinnegan. Everyone in the group nearly fainted when they saw his newly transformed eyes. "My eyes are said to be the eyes of the Rikoudou Sennin himself. They are the highest evolution of the Sharingan. By simply having these eyes I am granted control over all elements, including the sub-elements. There's a long list of things they can do, such as control over gravity, the ability to absorb chakra, and even the ability to defy death if I'm willing to pay the price." Naruto paused here once again as his eyes began to glow.

Naruto adjusted his gaze towards Sasuke before Sasuke instantly levitated a few inches into the air. Naruto held him there for a moment before gently sitting him back on the ground. "I am right now one of the strongest shinobi in the village based on the power of my eyes alone, and in my prime I was hailed as the strongest shinobi in the entire world. I'm not sure what exactly happened but I was thrown back in time 5 years, to the day we graduated. I retained my memories and the knowledge of all my abilities, but didn't and still don't have the chakra control or capacity to use them all. Like I said, I'll explain better after this mission, just know that I'm on par with you right now Kakashi-sensei."

Everyone sat there looking at Naruto in shock. To reveal that the dead last of the class was actually a hero from the future who was said to be the strongest shinobi to ever live… that was a bit much.

Kakashi was the first to get over his shock. "Every part of me says not to believe you… I just want to laugh and pass it off as a prank but after seeing the eyes in person… I can't believe it. Does anyone else know about this?"

Naruto shook his head in reply "Just you three and Hokage-jiji. I've kept all of this a secret because I didn't know how people would take it. Ideally I would've waited until I was back to nearly my full power to reveal my true powers but the circumstance kinda calls for it now."

"So all this time you've been hiding your true abilities… this is so hard to believe but like Kakashi-sensei said we witnessed your power firsthand." Sasuke said as he came out of his shock and looked over Naruto, who was now exuding an aura of power like he had only saw once before when Kakashi and Zabuza fought.

"N-Naruto-kun we're not mad that you hid y-your powers from us. I-I-I'm sure you had good r-reasons. I'm just g-glad you trust us e-enough to tell us." Hinata said followed by a nod of agreement from the others.

"What's important right now is that we get ready for Zabuza and the hunter-nin. Sounds like you're ready Naruto, but I have a few things in mind to teach Hinata and Sasuke." Kakashi said getting back on topic.

Naruto nodded before Kakashi continued again. "Sasuke I want to teach you a couple of lightning jutsu so that you can provide support to me. With water as his primary element Zabuza will be susceptible to any lightning jutsu that you can hit him with. Hinata I want to teach you a water jutsu mainly for defensive purposes, it will come in handy while defending the bridge builder. Naruto is there any way you could teach Hinata the Kazekiri no jutsu? I believe it would be a great technique in conjunction with her byakugan." Everyone nodded at their assignments before Kakashi took Sasuke to the side while Naruto began teaching Hinata the Kazekiri no Jutsu.

After a couple of hours in the clearing Tazuna came outside ready to begin work on the bridge. Naruto agreed to go with him and left a clone to teach Hinata.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Almost two weeks had passed since Team 7's first encounter with Zabuza. They had spent the week with Naruto watching over the bridge builder while the others continued their training. Finally they had arrived at the day Naruto told them that Zabuza would return. Naruto created 10 shadow clones and hid them in the house before the group left for the bridge with Tazuna in tow.

As they approached the bridge everyone noticed that the fog was very thick all around the area. "Looks like he is here already. Everyone be ready, they're probably waiting on us." Kakashi said as the group kept walking towards the bridge.

Before long they arrived to see all of Tazuna's assistants on the ground either dead or unconscious. "Well Zabuza, it appears you didn't die after all. No matter, I wasn't lying when I said that your future is death." Kakashi said into the fog.

"Long time no see Kakashi, I came back to prove you wrong. I won't leave here today until the bridgebuilder is dead." Zabuza replied from somewhere in the mist.

As soon as he was done talking the group was surrounded by 5 Zabuzas, all with their swords poised to strike. "I see you brought the kids back again. It's a shame that they're gonna die here too." One of the Zabuza clones said before he burst into water and fell back to the bridge. Another of the clones looked just in time to see Sasuke jump away from the now dead clone before he slashed across another's chest, dispelling him back into water as well. Hinata jumped forward and made quick work of another two of them with her jyuken while Naruto simply waved his hand and blasted the last clone with a wave of fire. None of the clones even had a chance to attack before they were all dispelled.

"Impressive for a bunch of brats. Hey Haku, looks like they might actually give you a run for your money." Zabuza said with a half chuckle, still hiding somewhere in the mist.

"We shall see about that Zabuza-sama." The hunter-nin, now identified as Haku, said as he dashed towards the group.

"Everyone you know your assignment now move!" Kakaski said as he and Sasuke dashed off to the side heading for Zabuza.

Even though he knew what to expect, Naruto was still shocked at Haku's speed. Haku covered the distance between them quickly and flicked his wrist, forming several ice senbon and launching them towards Naruto and Hinata. Hinata responded by quickly going through some handseals and slapping her palms on the ground, shooting a wall of water up to block the needles. "Suiton: Suijinheki!" Hinata said as she finished.

Haku was annoyed that they managed to block his attack but had to quickly drop the thought as a lightning bolt shot through the wall of water. He dropped and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the lightning as it passed by his head. He quickly corrected and began going through handseals. "Hissatsu Hyoso!" He said as several ice spears erupted from the ground around the two genin. Naruto saw it coming and grabbed Hinata before dropping to a knee and touching his hand to the ground. As soon as he was down a wall of rock shot up around them both, stopping the ice spears. "Doton: Doryuheki."

Haku didn't relent and grabbed out a couple of senbon to try a close range attack. He dashed towards Naruto but never made it before Hinata stepped in the way and delivered several jyuken strikes to Haku's left arm before Naruto jumped in and smashed his foot into Haku's face, cracking his mask and shooting him back across the bridge.

"Haku, quit playing around or we're gonna lose this fight!" Zabuza shouted as he began his fight with Kakashi.

"You should surrender now, I've disabled your left arm, you're at a disadvantage now; you can't even perform any more jutsu." Hinata said clearly, not studdering in the heat of the moment.

"Allow me to correct you please." Haku said as he dashed back towards the genin while doing one-handed handseals. When he finished the handseals he slid to a stop as the genin felt the temperature drop several degrees. "Makyo Hyosho!" Haku said as several mirrors appeared around himself and the other two genin.

"This is my strongest technique, no one has ever seen it and lived to tell the tale." Haku said as he jumped into the closest mirror, causing his reflection to appear in each mirrior simultaneously. "Now prepare to die!"


	8. Chapter 8

Naruto and Hinata stood on guard as they were enveloped by a dome of ice mirrors with images of Haku appearing in each one. "You cannot win this fight. This is my ultimate jutsu; no one has ever seen this technique and lived to tell the tale. I would rather not kill you so why don't you just surrender?" Haku called out from seemingly everywhere within the dome.

"Well as much as I would prefer not to die, and I'd rather not kill you either, but we have a mission to accomplish." Naruto replied while staying on guard.

"It seems we can't come to an agreement then. Our interests conflict with each other. I fight for my precious people, to fulfill Zabuza-sama's dreams. What do you fight for?" Haku said from everywhere once again.

"I fight for my precious people as well. I fight to keep Hinata-chan safe, to ensure the safety of my entire village. What Gato has done for the people of this country is despicable, and you two are trying to destroy their only hope. That's what I fight for; to give these people a chance at a better life." Naruto replied with conviction in his voice.

"I see. That is a valiant reason to fight, but unfortunately it interferes with Zabuza-sama's goal and I cannot allow that. I'm sorry but I must kill you." Haku said before he pulled out several senbon and jumped out of the mirror towards the pair of genin.

Naruto didn't have his Rinnegan active so he was barely able to follow the speed of Haku as he flew by and threw the senbon at them. He quickly coated his hands with wind and moved to block the senbon. He managed to stop most but some of them made it through his defense and stabbed into both him and Hinata.

Both genin let out a yelp of pain as the needles stabbed them in various places. They looked around only to find Haku once again appearing in all the mirrors at once. "See, you cannot defeat me. I'm impressed that you were able to follow me and block my attack as much as you did." Haku said from the mirrors.

Naruto didn't reply, instead he blurred through a set of handseals and aimed for a random mirror before bringing his hand to his mouth in a 'C' shape. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" he said as a stream of flames erupted from his mouth and into the ice mirror. He kept the fire going for a moment before letting it fade away, revealing the mirror to be unharmed. "Just as I suspected, this chakra laced ice is indestructible." Naruto thought aloud

"Yes it is. Now can you see that you're outmatched and surrender so I don't have to kill you?" Haku replied as he pulled out another handful of senbon.

"Not gonna happen. Hinata-chan are you ready?" Naruto said earning a nod from Hinata. Haku shook his head in defeat before jumping out of the mirror once again, only this time Naruto activated his Rinnegan, allowing him to easily track the fake hunter-nin. He quickly moved to avoid the senbon and grabbed Haku by the arm, stopping any further attack.

" _Impossible! He stopped my attack… Zabuza-sama, I'm sorry but I've failed you."_ Haku thought as Naruto whipped his body around to Hinata who stepped in and delivered several jyuken strikes to Haku, effectively disabling him from fighting anymore before Naruto chopped him the in the back of the neck, knocking him unconscious.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

With Kakashi, Sasuke, and Zabuza

"Zabuza, if you don't mind I'm going to end this quickly. I have a mission to finish and that means you have to die." Kakashi said as he lifted his headband revealing his Sharingan, earning a chuckle from Zabuza.

"You see Kakashi, I don't think you can end it quickly. You know a shinobi isn't supposed to show their best technique repeatedly." Zabuza replied

"You should be honored, you're the only person to ever see this eye twice."

"I'm not so scared of you or that eye anymore. You should know that Haku is a bright lad, and he usually only has to see a technique once before he figures out how it works. He watched our last little skirmish and analyzed every move, and let me know how you work. I know now that your famous little eye can't actually see the future, you just played a trick on me with a bit of hypnosis and cheap genjutsu. So I came up with a solution to the problem." Zabuza said as the mist around them became so thick that no one could see at all.

" _What does he expect to accomplish here? I can't see anything so I know he can't either."_ Kakashi thought as he looked around the mist, keeping his guard up. 

"What's your plan here Zabuza? I know you can't see anything either." Kakashi said out into the mist, earning a chuckle in reply.

"Don't you know Kakashi, I'm a master of silent killing. I can find and kill you just by the sounds of you breathing." Zabuza said from directly behind Kakashi.

Kakashi quickly spun around and blocked a slash from Zabuza's large sword with his kunai, sliding back several feet from the force of the strike. Sasuke took advantage of Zabuza's distraction and quickly did a set of hand seals. "Kaminari tatsumaki!" Sasuke called out as he extended his palm towards Zabuza, shooting a twisting stream of lightning from his hand towards Zabuza, causing him to jump back and disappear into the mist.

" _Where did he go now… where will he attack next? Tazuna!"_ Kakashi thought before he disappeared from his spot and reappeared in front of Tazuna just in time to take a slash across his side. His flak jacket protected him for the most part but he still received a cut on his side from the attack.

"How can you possibly win Kakashi, you can't even see me." Zabuza said with a laugh as he disappeared back into the mist.

"There is more than one way to skin a cat Zabuza." Kakashi said as he pulled out a scroll and wiped some of the blood from his side onto it. "It's time to end this. Kuchiyose: Doton: Tsuiga no Jutsu." He finished as he did a set of seals with the scroll in his hands. He threw the scroll onto the ground as a large puff of smoke came out of it.

Nothing happened for a moment before there was a sudden grunt of pain from somewhere within the mist followed by the noise of several dogs growling before the mist around them disappeared, revealing Zabuza standing with several ninken latched to different parts of his body restraining him.

"Zabuza your ambition was too great, you wanted to overthrow and kill the Mizukage but for that you needed money and to avoid the hunter-nin. It's for that reason that you attached yourself to a piece of shit like Gato, causing your path to cross mine. My mission is to protect this bridgebuilder, he is the courage of this country, this bridge he's building is their hope. A real shinobi wouldn't try destroy that." Kakashi said as he did a set of handseals, causing his right hand to be enveloped in lightning chakra. The chakra was wildly dancing around his hand and shooting to the ground all around him, giving off a noise that sounded like a thousand birds chirping at once.

"I don't give a damn about any of that, I fight for my own ideals and I'll keep on doing that!" Zabuza yelled out as he struggled to get free of the dogs.

"I'll give you one more chance to surrender." Kakashi said in a stern tone, earning a glare from Zabuza. "Then you leave me no choice, you're far too dangerous to let loose. Your future is death." He finished as he drew his arm back and started running towards Zabuza.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

With Naruto, Hinata, and Haku

Haku was awoken by a loud screeching noise as he looked around to regain his bearings. He saw Naruto standing guard over him with Hinata at his side. He looked a bit further to find Zabuza bound by several ninken, with Kakashi standing several feet away with lightning dancing around his hand. "Why did you not kill me?" He asked

"Because I know you have a good heart and were only trying to complete your mission. You were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time." Naruto replied.

"You should have killed me. I'm useless to Zabuza-sama now. I'm just a broken tool." Haku said as he hung his head low.

"That's not true. You are a talented shinobi, much more than just a tool. You need to see the bigger picture." Naruto replied.

Haku was about to reply when he noticed Kakashi start moving towards Zabuza. "Zabuza-sama!" Haku yelled as he jumped up and began racing towards them at insane speed.

"Bansho-tenin." Naruto said as he extended his right palm towards Haku, his Rinnegan eyes glowing brightly.

One second Haku was running towards Zabuza as fast as he could, intent on taking the attack and sparing Zabuza's life, and the next he was forcefully stopped in his tracks by some unknown force. "Nooo! Zabuza-sama!" He yelled out as he was being pulled back towards Naruto. Zabuza heard him yell and looked that way, showing Haku a look he had never seen before, a mixture between sorrow and pride.

Haku noted Zabuza's look and knew exactly what he was feeling. He felt proud of Haku for all that he had accomplished but sorry that he had taken his life away. Just a second after they made eye contact, Kakashi's lightning covered hand shot through Zabuza's chest, causing his eyes to roll back in his head. "Chidori." Kakashi said as he withdrew his arm, causing Zabuza's lifeless body to fall to the ground.

"Zabuza-sama… I'm sorry I was a useless tool, unable to help you in the end." Haku muttered in a broken tone looking upon his lifeless form.

"Well it looks like Christmas came early this year. Now that Zabuza is dead I won't have to pay him, as if I ever was in the first place. At least he did his job in weakening you enough so I could finish this fight." Said a raspy voice from the end of the bridge. Everyone quickly turned to see Gato surrounded by an army of at least a hundred armed bandits.

"You bastard! You sent us on this mission knowing that Zabuza-sama would be killed? I'll kill you! Haku said as she once more took off running, only this time Naruto didn't stop her.

"Of course, all I needed was for him to weaken these shinobi enough so that I could kill them myself. Even if he survived I would've killed him, nuke-nin are so expensive." Gato replied with a chuckle. "Men, kill them all." He finished as his thugs stepped forward and withdrew their weapons. Several charged towards Haku expecting an easy kill since he was obviously injured.

Haku met the mercenaries and forced one of his injured arms to make some hand seals before several spikes of ice shot out of the ground and impaled all of them, killing everyone in the group that attacked her. She pressed forward and repeated the process with another group before the rest of the thugs began to retreat.

"Hold it right there! Gato we're tired of your tyranny. It's time we take back our country!" Yelled a man with a crossbow as he and several other citizens walked up and blocked Gato's escape. They all fired their weapons and took down several thugs as Haku ran into the fray, using his ice to take down several more. After a few minutes, only Haku and Gato remained on the bridge, though Haku had sustained pretty severe injuries.

Haku limped towards Gato with a dead expression on his face. Gato was too scared to even move. "You betrayed us and caused Zabuza-sama's death. For that you must die." Haku said quietly as he pulled out a single senbon.

"Please wait… I'll give you anything you want! Money, women, land!" Gato yelled out as he backed away from the angered shinobi.

"The only thing in this life that I want you have already taken from me. You disgust me you little son of a bitch!" Haku yelled out as he threw the senbon forward and into Gato's forehead. The senbon went into his forehead with ease, causing him to instantly fall backwards dead. Haku, with his vendetta complete, succumbed to his injuries and collapsed to the ground.

The members of Team 7 quickly gathered around Haku to assess the damage. As they looked over Haku's battered body they noticed several deep cuts loosing blood at an alarming rate. They could easily tell that the wounds would be fatal without a good medic right on hand, which they didn't have.

"Don't worry about me, this is for the best. Without Zabuza-sama I have no purpose. I'm but a tool with no purpose anymore. This way I'll be reunited with him in the afterlife." Haku said in a weak voice as he began to cough up blood.

"I'm sorry about all this Haku. I feel like, in a different life, we could've been friends. If only our paths hadn't conflicted. I hope you find peace in the afterlife." Naruto said in a sad tone as Haku smiled and coughed up blood one last time before closing his eyes for the last time.

"Well guys I suppose this means the mission is a success. We'll give these two a proper burial and then get this mess cleaned up." Kakashi said earning nods from the three genin.

They gathered up Zabuza and Haku's bodies and took them to a hill overlooking the bridge and buried them both in a grave marked by a small rock. After the small funeral the team went down to the bridge and cleaned up the mess that was left after the fight.

The next week went on without incident as Tazuna and his crew, aided by a couple hundred Naruto clones, finished the bridge.

Once the bridge was completed the team was gathered at the end ready to leave, with the whole village gathered around to wish them farewell. They said their goodbyes before departing back towards Konoha leaving the villagers to celebrate the new bridge and their hopeful recovery.

"Grandpaw what are we gonna call the bridge?" Inari asked as he looked up towards Tazuna.

"Hmm. What about the Super Great Awesome Super Tazuna Bridge?" Tazuna replied before being slapped in the back of the head by Tsunami.

"What about the Great Naruto Bridge? Since it was indirectly Naruto who inspired everyone to fight for our rights." Tsunami said.

"Yea that sounds awesome!" Inari cheered.

"Sounds like a plan then, this bridge is now known as The Great Naruto Bridge!" Tazuna yelled out as everyone began to cheer.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 **Just to clarify, the Naruto-Inari moments happened here just like canon.**


	9. Chapter 9

The trip back to Konoha and the subsequent weeks were uneventful, Team 7 returned and gave their report to the Hokage before receiving a 3 day vacation to recover from the A-rank mission. During the small break Naruto honored his word and told his comrades along with Hiruzen his entire story and the extent of his powers. The other members of Team 7 were further shocked as Naruto continued his story. Sasuke was a bit upset that his future self defected from the village and ended up dead by Madara's hand, but was kind of exited to know he became almost as strong as Naruto being labled as one of the strongest shinobi ever to live. Hinata was exited and eventually fainted when she discovered that during the war, Naruto confessed his love to her and they became a couple, though she was also disappointed that Naruto 'died' and went back in time before they were able to make anything of the relationship. She was happy that in this timeline Naruto confessed the truth five years before the war. She of course reciprocated the feelings, and they became an official couple once again. Kakashi, like Sasuke, was intrigued by the fact that he was a major asset in the final battle against Madara, also becoming a shinobi of legend. The aged Hokage took the news rather well, as he already knew most of the story. It also helps that over 70 years alive and being hailed as the God of Shinobi meant that he had seen pretty much everything possible.

After the group discussion, everyone left and spent the rest of their vacation relaxing and having a good time, while also throwing in some training to stay fit. After the vacation they resumed their duties and went back to training as a team and doing a couple of missions for the next couple of weeks before finally Hiruzen announced the chunin exams.

All of the rookie genin teams along with Team 9 were nominated and accepted to take the exams. All of the jonin sensei were briefed about the high probability of an invasion during the finals, therefore they trained their students extra hard in the weeks leading up to the exams.

Finally the first part of the exams were upon them, and we find Team 7 meeting at their regular training ground before walking to the academy together. When they arrived they came across the scene of Rock Lee getting beat up in front of the genjutsu room. Naruto knew that he was faking and team 7 calmly made their way past and up to the third floor to take the exam.

It wasn't long in the room before Kabuto approached the group of fresh genin who had all gathered and began talking amongst themselves. Naruto had to restrain himself from killing the traitor on the spot but kept composed as he carried into his speech about taking the exams 7 times and having the information on everyone. As if on cue the Oto genin came and attacked Kabuto, though this time Naruto subtly shifted the gravity around Kabuto, causing him to take a direct hit from Dosu's melody arm. Kabuto was knocked to the ground and began violently throwing up blood. His glasses were completely shattered and there was blood coming from his ears and nose as a result of the sound waves.

" _I know I moved in time to dodge that… what the hell happened it's like I tripped or something."_ Kabuto thought as he finally stopped puking and somewhat recovered. Naruto suppressed a giggle at the results of his tampering, it was so much better than the original.

He didn't get to ponder on his success long before a booming voice erupted over the room. "Shut the hell up you worthless bastards!" the voice yelled as everyone turned to the front of the room to find a tall man in a Konoha Hitai-ate and a long black trench coat. He had several scars on his face, and over all he was a scary looking person. "My name is Morino Ibiki, and I'll be the proctor for the first round of the exams. You there, Oto genin, there is no fighting in this part of the exam, don't piss me off or I'll send you bastards packing before the exam even starts. Now everyone come get a number and sit in the corresponding seat. Once you're all seated we'll hand out the tests. Don't turn them over yet."

All the chunin candidates made their way to the front and got a number before taking their respective seats. The chunin assistants then passed out all of the tests before Ibiki began to speak again. "This exam will be a 10 question written test. Each question is worth 1 point, and it will be a subtraction based system. You start with a total of 10 and each wrong answer will take away 1 point. This is a team exam, and you will pass or fail based on the combined total of your team's points for a total possible 30 points." All of the candidates were looking around at their teammates now wondering how they would do. It was at this point that Naruto noticed he was sitting next to Sakura. "Also, these fine chunin that are here assisting me will be keeping an eye on you, and each time you fuck up, namely by cheating, you will lose 2 points. Get caught 5 times and your point total will be 0, causing you and your team to fail. Now then, good luck, you may begin now and you have 1 hour." Ibiki said as everyone flipped their tests and began. Most of the genin quickly noticed that the questions were very hard, something that may even be difficult for a chunin to answer. Naruto knew the purpose of this exam but still discreetly looked around to check on everyone. He saw how everyone was cheating in their own various ways, except Sakura who was just booksmart enough to answer the questions. He saw that Hinata and Sasuke were using their respective Dojutsu to copy the answers from the placed chunin. During the next 45 minutes several teams were caught cheating too much and disqualified. Finally Ibiki stepped forward and got everyone's attention before speaking again. "Alright maggots it's time for the final question. This is a special question."

Again all the genin looked around slightly anxious about this 'special question'. "Would anyone like to quit before we begin this question?" Ibiki asked with a sadistic smile as he looked over the nervous candidates.

"Why would we quit now? We made it this far of course we won't quit!" one of the random genin yelled out.

Ibiki's smile got bigger as he continued "I'm glad you asked, that's what makes this question special. If you choose to take this question and you get it wrong, you can never take the test again, you'll be genin for life. But if you quit now you fail and can retake the test next time." He finished before looking around noticing the genin contemplating his words. A couple raised their hands and their teams were escorted away. Finally another genin spoke up. "How can you say that, there are people here who have taken the test before and are still here?"

"They never had the misfortune of having me as a proctor. Too bad." Ibiki replied before that genin quit and his team left. A few more quit before finally Ibiki was satisfied that there were no more quitters and he started again. "Is everyone sure that they wish to take the chance?" He looked around the room and saw no one making any effort to leave. "Fine then, you all pass."

Various genin were yelling and cussing at the turn of events, wanting an explanation before Ibiki satisfied their desires. "The purpose of this test was to test your information gathering skills. As a chunin you will be a team leader, expected to figure out missing information necessary to complete the mission. The last question was to test your capability to continue on a mission with poor or no information, even if the odds are against you. Sometimes-"

Ibiki was interrupted by a loud crash as a black ball plowed through the window and expanded into a banner, hung to the roof by kunai with Anko standing in front of the banner. "Hello Maggots! I'm the wonderfully sexy and tragically single Anko Mitarashi and I'll be the-"

"Dammit Anko you're early! I wasn't done yet!" Ibiki yelled as a vein popped up on his forehead.

Anko chuckled and scratched the back of her head. "Heh heh sorry… Damn Ibiki theres a lot of genin left in here, you're slacking."

Ibiki smirked and replied "This year is a promising bunch, what can I say?"

"Oh well, by the end of my test there will be less than half of them left. You heard me maggots! I'm the proctor for the second part of the exam. Meet me tomorrow morning at training ground 44 in 20 minutes, and I'm true to my word there will be less than half of you when I'm done!"

All the genin looked kind of frightened after her description of the second exam before she drove the nail in the coffin. "Now get the hell out of my sight or the second exam will seem like a walk in the park!" She yelled causing all of the genin to jump out of their seats and run away.

"Does my heart good to scare the shit out of the maggots." Anko said with a wink and smile before she jumped out of the window she entered through headed for the Forest of Death.

After 15 minutes all of the chunin hopefuls along with Anko were standing outside the large chain-link fence surrounding a dark looking forest with warning tags all over it.

"Now then, this happy looking place here is Training Ground 44, otherwise known as the Forest of Death, and you'll soon find out why it's called that." Everyone looked nervously at the forest and could hear the vicious sounds of animals roaring and growling from within.

"Now I'll need each of you to sign one of these forms and then bring them back to me." Anko said as some chunin assistants began to pass out some forms to the crowd.

"What are these for?" One of the Suna genin asked.

"They are liability waivers, to release Konoha of any liability if and when you get killed in this forest." Anko replied with a sadistic grin before the Suna genin decided that he was fine being a genin and he and his team were escorted away.

"I want each of you to sign the form and then one member from each team bring the forms to me. I'll trade three signed waivers for one of these scrolls. There are two types of scrolls, a heaven and earth. To pass my test you'll be given five days to make your way to the tower in the center of the forest with one of each of the scrolls."

It suddenly sank in to the genin that only half of them at best could pass this test if they had to steal a scroll from the other teams.

"You're responsible for collecting both scrolls by any means necessary, killing is allowed in this portion of the test. Now look on your scroll for a number, that will be your starting gate. Get there and wait for the signal to start, good luck maggots!" Anko said as all the teams made their way to their gate.

"Alright guys, let's make this quick, there's nothing good in this forest. I've got something to take care of but I'll do that after we have a scroll. Sasuke you take point, Hinata you take the rear, we'll take the first team we find. Naruto said earning nods from his teammates before the gate popped open and a horn sounded through the forest signaling the start of the second exam.


End file.
